Environment | The Guardian

Seventy percent of pregnant women in state had herbicide dicamba in their urine, up from 28% in an earlier studyPregnant women in a key US farm state are showing increasing amounts of a toxic weedkiller in their urine, a rise that comes alongside climbing use of the chemicals in agriculture, according to a study published on Friday.The study, led by the Indiana University school of medicine, showed that 70% of pregnant women tested in Indiana between 2020 and 2022 had a herbicide called dicamba in their urine, up from 28% from a similar analysis for the period 2010-12. The earlier study included women in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Continue reading...

Scottish Labour leader defends windfall tax proposal as business leaders say levy could cost up to 100,000 jobsAnas Sarwar has shrugged off an attack on Labour's oil tax plans after being called a traitor" by Aberdeen business leaders.The Scottish Labour leader said the party would press on with its plans for a multibillion-pound windfall tax on oil profits, despite claims from more than 800 oil, engineering and business executives that the levy could cost up to 100,000 North Sea jobs. Continue reading...

Residents hope president will announce federal aid as advocates sign letter to him requesting major disaster declaration from FemaJoe Biden will finally make a visit to East Palestine, Ohio on Friday, more than a year after a toxic train derailment devastated the community.For many residents, the trip is overdue. They hope Biden will use the visit to announce federal aid for environmental testing, relocation assistance, and immediate and ongoing healthcare for residents who are still weathering the fallout from the derailment - something community groups have been demanding for the past year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Manufacturers retest contaminated soil fill until it complies' with regulations and can then be used at childcare centres, schools or parks

French energy firm swung to profit in 2023 despite impairment charge on struggling nuclear project in UKThe owner of the Hinkley Point C power plant has taken a near 13bn hit after delays and cost overruns to the vast nuclear project, which have triggered international political tensions.France's EDF Energy said it had taken a 12.9bn (11bn) impairment charge on the project, weeks after it blamed inflation, Covid and Brexit for a four-year delay and extra 2.3bn bill for the Somerset plant. Continue reading...

Opponents lodge legal appeal against Sunday's planned mascleta, a celebration of noise, near recently restored Manzanares riverEnvironmentalists and animal welfare groups are protesting against Madrid city council's plans to stage an especially noisy firework display in a nature reserve created on the recently restored Manzanares river.Opponents say the mascleta, a celebration of noise rather than light, planned for this Sunday lunchtime will lead to a massacre" of wildlife, and of birds in particular. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Exclusive: The animal translocation scheme by wildlife NGOs including African Parks, once headed by the royal, has been dogged by controversyFour more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi. The recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven.In July 2022, more than 250 elephants were moved from Liwonde national park in southern Malawi to the country's second-largest protected area, Kasungu, in a three-way operation between Malawi's national park service and two NGOs: the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), and African Parks. Prince Harry was president of African Parks for six years, before being elevated to the board of directors from 2023. Continue reading...

EPA confirms bonded asbestos found at St John of God hospital in North Richmond, Kellyville Woolworths and Transport for NSW park in Wiley Park

An overturned barge has been leaking oil into the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, prompting authorities on the island nation to declare a state of emergency. Satellite imagery showed parts of the Trinidadian coast dyed black from the spill, and the leak began reaching nearby Venezuela and Grenada. Farley Augustine, chief secretary of Tobago's House of Assembly, said: 'We need those responsible to come clean and we need those responsible to know that they have to pay for this mess, that they are culpable as part of this mess'

The Tijuana River flows through Mexico and empties off California, carrying pathogens and chemicals and threatening public healthRaw sewage and runoff in the Tijuana River is exposing communities at the US-Mexico border to an unusual and noxious brew of pathogens and toxic chemicals, according to a report released this week.Billions of gallons of sewage flow through the river, which winds north from Mexico through California and empties into the Pacific Ocean, containing a mix of carcinogenic chemicals including arsenic, as well as viruses, bacteria and parasites, according to public health researchers at San Diego State University, who published the report. Continue reading...

Research reveals area size of France is under threat by restoration projects taking place in unsuitable landscapesMisguided tree-planting projects are threatening crucial ecosystems across Africa, scientists have warned.Research has revealed that an area the size of France is threatened by forest restoration initiatives that are taking place in inappropriate landscapes. Continue reading...

National Audit Office to examine risks and costs at nuclear waste site in CumbriaBritain's public spending watchdog has launched an investigation into risks and costs at Sellafield, the UK's biggest nuclear waste dump.The National Audit Office (NAO), which scrutinises the use of public funds, has announced it will examine whether the Cumbria site is managing and prioritising the risks and hazards of the site effectively as well as deploying resources appropriately and continuing to improve its project management. Continue reading...

Lack of activity persists despite lifting of ban on projects last year, and contrasts with 46 applications made in ScotlandNo new proposals for general-use windfarms were submitted for planning permission in England last year, despite the government's much-vaunted relaxation of planning restrictions.Only seven applications were submitted for onshore wind turbines for the whole of 2023 in England, new data from the government has shown, and all of those developments were for the replacement of existing turbines or for private sites, where the energy produced is destined for a particular consumer, such as a business. Continue reading...

Companies knew for decades recycling was not viable but promoted it regardless, Center for Climate Integrity study findsPlastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report.The companies lied," said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. It's time to hold them accountable for the damage they've caused." Continue reading...

Fuel continues to leak from overturned and abandoned barge as stain spreads into the Caribbean SeaAn oil spill that has stained Tobago's coastline in the Caribbean is entering Grenada's waters and could affect neighboring Venezuela, authorities have warned.Eight days after Trinidad and Tobago's coastguard first spotted the oil from an overturned and abandoned barge, the vessel continues to leak fuel, and portions of the stain have moved about 144km (89 miles) into the Caribbean Sea at a rate of 14km/h. Continue reading...

Small farms and Black farmers are going out of business, while corporate-controlled farms are booming, raking in subsidiesRecord numbers of US farms are going out of business with small farms and Black farmers the hardest hit - again, according to the 2022 agriculture census, a comprehensive snapshot of the state of America's farms and farmers published every five years by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Yet industrial factory farms rearing thousands of livestock in confinement have further expanded into rural America, acquiring smaller farms, raking in taxpayer subsidies and generating environmental harms.The agriculture census is a mammoth data collection effort involving more than a million farmers, which tracks the number, size and types of farm across sectors, as well as the farmers and the financials - at the national, state and county levels. It provides insights into the impact - good and bad - of government programs on farmers, workers, land use, animals, waterways and the climate, and should inform future policy. The latest data set includes the Covid pandemic - an extraordinary time when global food prices, government farm subsidies and food insecurity all surged. Continue reading...

Australian Platypus Conservancy says it's remarkable this animal is still doing as well as he is'

The award-winning short film's creators hope that casting a woman as a female salmon will help viewers connect with the fish, which was recently classed as near threatened'A strange-looking woman in a wetsuit heaves herself up on to a gravel beach in a remote corner of Iceland. Her mouth is swollen and peculiarly wide, she has webbed hands and is wearing a huge black diving mask and flippers. She stops moving abruptly and lies still, not breathing, her arms and legs splayed out at odd angles on the pebbles.But as the camera zooms slowly in on her body and the actor Marianne Faithfull's voice starts narrating, we learn that the webbed woman is not a woman after all. She is a fish. Continue reading...

State's energy minister calls for national approach to energy system resilience as climate change causes more extreme weather events

Cash injection in Great British Energy should be increased to 30bn, thinktank says after Keir Starmer U-turnKeir Starmer is being urged to more than double Labour's investment in publicly owned renewable energy to save consumers billions of pounds on their bills, despite the party drastically scaling back its plans last week.In an intervention after the Labour leader scrapped the party's 28bn green investment pledge in the most controversial U-turn of his leadership, the Common Wealth thinktank said a step-change in government backing for clean energy generation was still required. Continue reading...

Exclusive: EPA also exploring recall of mulch products made by Greenlife Resource Recovery

Denialism highest in central and southern US, with Republican voters less likely to believe in climate scienceNearly 15% of Americans don't believe climate change is real, a new study out of the University of Michigan reveals - shedding light on the highly polarized attitude toward global warming.Additionally, denialism is highest in the central and southern US, with Republican voters found less likely to believe in climate science. Continue reading...

We need to respond now,' says author of study that says crucial forest has already passed safe boundary and needs restorationUp to half of the Amazon rainforest could hit a tipping point by 2050 as a result of water stress, land clearance and climate disruption, a study has shown.The paper, which is the most comprehensive to date in its analysis of the compounding impacts of local human activity and the global climate crisis, warned that the forest had already passed a safe boundary and urged remedial action to restore degraded areas and improve the resilience of the ecosystem. Continue reading...

Preserving Indian French, as community members call it, has taken on new urgency as climate-related hurricanes and coastal erosion threaten to displace the tribeOn a recent morning in the southern Louisiana town of Bourg, Cynthia Owens reviewed flashcards with her kindergarten class.She held up an image of a crocodile. Caiman", she said, using the word for crocodile spoken by Indigenous tribes in the region. Caiman, her nine students repeated. Then: Crocodile", she said, using the French term. Crocodile, responded the chorus of fidgety five- and six-year-olds. Continue reading...

Even as the weather emergency was still unfolding, some commentators and politicians couldn't resist the urge to blame renewable energy

US stingray with no male companion expected to give birth to up to four offspring via rare phenomenon of parthenogenesisCharlotte, a rust-colored stingray the size of a serving platter, has spent much of her life gliding around the confines of a storefront aquarium in North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains.She's 2,300 miles (3,700km) from her natural habitat under the waves off southern California. She hasn't shared a tank of water with a male of her species in at least eight years. Continue reading...

Republican Jeff Landry, who has labeled climate change a hoax', has elevated fossil fuel executives to key environmental postsIn his first four weeks in office, Louisiana's Republican governor, Jeff Landry, has filled the ranks of state environmental posts with executives tied to the oil, gas and coal industries.Landry, who has labeled climate change a hoax", has also taken aim at the state's climate taskforce for possible elimination as part of a sweeping reorganization of Louisiana's environmental bureaucracy. The goal, according to Landry's executive order, is to create a better prospective business climate". Continue reading...

Pollution from heating homes using solid fuel such as wood increased by 19% from 2012 to 2022, data showsA rise in harmful emissions from wood-burning stoves has cancelled out decreases in particulate pollution from road and energy sources in the UK, government data reveals.Emissions of PM2.5 and PM10 from domestic combustion - heating homes using solid fuel such as wood - increased by 19% between 2012 and 2022, counteracting efforts made to travel and produce commercial energy in less polluting ways. Continue reading...

A sustainable technique for catching tuna that goes back thousands of years is on the verge of extinction in Italy - but not for a lack of fishOn an overcast morning, several miles off Sardinia's east coast, four men jump into a net where 49 giant Atlantic bluefin tuna are fighting for their lives. For 30 minutes, the men struggle in a frenzy of nets, tails, fins and sleek silvery bodies before finally securing a metal hook through the gills of the nearest fish.From one of seven wooden boats framing this camira da morti (chamber of death"), Luigi Biggio yells for his men to pull.Death comes quickly, in a technique that, while bloody, may be more humane than suffocation in trawler nets. But the men in among them can end up in hospital from a whack of the thrashing fishes' tails Continue reading...

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has successfully translocated 21 eastern black rhinos to a region where they have been extinct for 50 years. Here's how they caught, transported and released these critically endangered creatures to their new home

A landslide in Turkey's eastern Erzincan region has buried a goldmine, and authorities say at least nine workers at the site are missing. Footage circulating on social media captured the moment a torrent of muddy earth burst into a valley near the mine in the lic district. Turkey's interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said 400 people from the country's emergency agency, AFAD, had been dispatched to the mine to rescue the trapped workers Continue reading...

Neighbors want to get the trucks out' as the idling vehicles choke the air, causing a public health concern in the historically disadvantaged areaOn a dark November night, a stream of cars and trucks lined up to cross the US border into Mexico. The commute, a commonplace one for many who live and work in the border city of El Paso, Texas, seemed interminable, and as the wait dragged on, the exhaust leaving idling cars choked the surrounding air.At Bridge of the Americas, one of the region's most popular ports of entry, this slow crawl across the border is a near daily occurrence - and residents of surrounding communities say the resulting air pollution is killing them. Continue reading...

Bears use ice to access food, but study of animals in Canada shows them struggling to adapt to more time on land amid climate crisisPolar bears in Canada's Hudson Bay risk starvation as the climate crisis lengthens periods without Arctic Sea ice, despite the creatures' willingness to expand their diets.Polar bears use the ice that stretches across the ocean surface in the Arctic during colder months to help them access their main source of prey - fatty ringed and bearded seals. Continue reading...

Campaigners accuse government of back door' amendment to bring in pollution rule change that was defeated in LordsThe government is facing a legal challenge over plans to permit housebuilders in England to allow sewage pollution through the back door".The campaign group Wild Justice, along with the law firm Leigh Day, have submitted plans for a judicial review over what they term an unlawful attempt to use guidance to introduce a change that was defeated in the House of Lords last year". Continue reading...

Green New Deal Rising aiming to help create climate caucus in parliament by promoting candidates in marginal seatsYoung climate activists are discreetly trying to influence Labour's candidate selection process in six constituencies before the general election, in an effort to form a climate caucus that can sway the next parliament.Outlining its electoral strategy at a press event on Monday night, Green New Deal Rising (GNDR), a youth climate campaign, said it intended to mobilise thousands of young activists to promote eight general election candidates in marginal seats. Continue reading...

George Smith helped secure the conviction of two men for trading in wild raptors. Now, his work is helping to unveil an illegal multimillion-pound international industryGeorge Smith has been tracking the peregrine falcons of south Scotland since 1984. His day job is working in maintenance, but every evening and weekend from March to July, Smith is out with the raptors. The birds nest on cliffs and old quarries - he knows all the sites. Paraphernalia fills the back of his car: fake eggs, ropes, microchip readers and DNA testing kits. I can't help myself," he says. My wife would like to put a tracker on me."He shows me a spreadsheet detailing 120 nest sites - as peregrine coordinator at the Scottish Raptor Study Group, he is tracking more than 90% of all peregrine falcons from Edinburgh down to the border with England. Continue reading...

Revenue from carbon solution levy could subsidise green iron, aluminium and fuel production, veteran economists argue

Minister says scheme to help low-income households and cut emissions is victim of its own success'The French government has suspended an electric car leasing scheme after only six weeks following a surge in demand that more than doubled the number of vehicles required.Officials said the scheme, launched in December to help low-income households and cut carbon emissions, would be relaunched next year. Continue reading...

Research shows there has been a near-quadrupling across Greenland of methane-producing wetlandsSignificant areas of Greenland's melted ice sheet are now producing vegetation, risking increased greenhouse gas emissions, rising sea levels and instability of the landscape.A study has documented the change since the 1980s and shows that large areas of ice have been replaced with barren rock, wetlands and shrub growth, creating a change in environment. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Greenlife Resource Recovery fights environment watchdog order to stop selling mulch amid asbestos investigation

Dueling petitions raise concerns over interior department's five-year plans to offer drilling leases in Gulf of MexicoOil and gas companies and environmental groups on Monday filed dueling legal challenges to the Biden administration's five-year plan to offer drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.The petitions to a US appeals court come four months after the interior department unveiled a congressionally-mandated plan for offshore leasing that included just three sales, the lowest since the government began publishing the schedules in 1980. Continue reading...

Friable asbestos found at Harmony Park in Surry Hills while less immediately dangerous bonded asbestos found in Victoria and Belmore parks

Report by RSPB and British Trust for Ornithology finds H5N1 has caused a loss of 75% of the great skua population and a 25% decline in northern gannetsThe UK has lost more than three-quarters of its great skuas on surveyed sites since bird flu struck, according to the first report quantifying the impact of H5N1 on seabird populations.The deaths have happened over two years, since the outbreak of H5N1 in 2021. The UK is internationally important for seabirds, home to most of the world's 16,000 pairs of nesting great skuas. Continue reading...

Group of progressive senators led by Ed Markey call for crackdown on certified natural gas in letter to US federal regulatorsCertified natural gas - or methane gas that is purportedly produced in a low-emissions manner - is a dangerous greenwashing scheme", a group of progressive senators wrote in a letter to federal regulators on Monday.The letter, addressed to Federal Trade Commission chair, Lina Khan, comes as the agency prepares to release its updated Green Guides, which clarify when companies' marketing claims around sustainability violate federal laws barring consumer deception, giving regulators stronger legal cases against polluters. Those guidelines should crack down" on claims made by gas certification programs, the lawmakers, led by Massachusetts's Ed Markey, wrote. Continue reading...

Upturned and largely submerged vessel of unknown origin is leaking hydrocarbon off south-west coast or TobagoTrinidad and Tobago's prime minister has said that a large oil spill near the twin-island nation has caused a national emergency" and vowed that the government will spare no expense to help rehabilitate the island's beaches.Oil from the spill has coated numerous beaches on Tobago's south-west coast, and the government has yet to identify the owner of the vessel that was found overturned off the coast last week. Continue reading...

Revision will pile further pressure on firm to invest in infrastructure amid anger over its sewage-dumping recordThames Water expects to leak more water than previously thought, after its ageing pipes were overwhelmed by a deluge of rainfall, it has emerged.Britain's largest water company has told regulators it now expects to leak 585m litres a day this financial year, up from a previous forecast of 550m litres a day. Continue reading...

Scientists say global heating is driving ice loss and warmer water, as ice cover falls short of 50-year average of 18%The average ice cover over the five Great Lakes was just 6% last month, placing it among the least icy Januarys since records began 50 years ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).The Great Lakes - Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario - are located at or near the US-Canada border, and are connected by a network of smaller lakes and rivers that span a combined surface area of 95,000 sq miles, making it the largest freshwater system in the world. Continue reading...

Investor-State Dispute Settlements are legal, huge and often hush-hush - and fossil fuel firms and others are using them to hold the planet to ransom

Meat and Livestock Australia says it has reduced emissions by 65% on 2005 levels but data analysis suggests figures underpinning claim are erroneous'